A conman who dreamt of launching his own airline has admitted 13 counts of fraud.

Adam Dovey, 23, of Trafalgar Road, Portslade, Brighton, will appear at Canterbury Crown Court next Monday to be sentenced for a fraud carried out over the internet auction web site eBay.

He advertised digital cameras and camera phones on the site and persuaded customers to pay cash directly into his bank account but never sent the goods out.

Last week Mr Dovey announced that he was launching an airline, Nexus Airways, with a 19-year-old entrepreneur from Liverpool, Daniel Reilly.

He admitted he had left school at 15 and had been kicked off his business studies course at Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre in Nevill Road.

But he said he was confident the airline would work and spoke of plans to launch long haul services between Gatwick Airport and Shanghai.

He refused to comment on the court case.

His solicitor Roger Davies, of RH Davies Solicitors in Canterbury, said: "Mr Dovey's case and his plea of mitigation will be made in court. I'm unable to comment until that time."

His ex-wife Susan Dovey, 25, married Adam in August 2002 but they split up in March 2003.

She said: "I was really worried when I heard about him wanting to launch an airline because there could be people who put money into it, and it's not going to go very far.

"I don't know how he can be thinking about launching an airline, the last time I spoke to him he said he was signing on. We split up three years ago. I'm not angry with him, there's no point.

"When we got married he didn't tell me he had £20,000 worth of debt and my dad wrote it off. He just ran the debts back up again."

A Brighton-based debt collector, who preferred not to be named, said he had been contacted by 15 people claiming they had been ripped off by Mr Dovey.

He said: "These are ordinary people who don't necessarily have a lot of money, who thought they could get a bargain off eBay."